Joel Montaniel — profile dossier

Identity and role

Joel Montaniel co-founded SevenRooms in 2011 and led it as CEO through its 2025 sale to DoorDash. He signed the March 24, 2020 letter to Congress as a SevenRooms representative. SevenRooms is a reservation, seating, and customer-relationship platform for restaurants and hospitality businesses.

Biography

His Food On Demand profile describes a Georgetown degree, an early career at Credit Suisse, a chief-of-staff role at LivePerson before he co-founded SevenRooms with Allison Page and Kinesh Patel in 2011 (DoorDash release). In June 2025 he was named an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 winner for the New York region (EY release). The company's funding history is not documented in the sources we have.

The March 24, 2020 letter and pandemic relief

Montaniel signed the coalition letter, which asked Treasury to direct "upwards of $500 billion" to small businesses through non-bank lenders and stated, "We seek no gain from this crisis." SevenRooms originated no loans. During the shutdowns the company built operator tools to replace lost dine-in revenue: no-cost Direct Delivery in March 2020 and Contactless Order & Pay in May 2020 for phone-based ordering and payment (see the Allison Page profile).

No corporate PPP loan to SevenRooms has been located.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

DoorDash acquired SevenRooms for about $1.2 billion in cash (CNBC); the deal was announced in May 2025 and closed in June 2025 (DoorDash releases). DoorDash's announcements described SevenRooms' leadership as joining DoorDash to continue building the business and framed the deal as an expansion of its Commerce Platform.

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

Sources

DoorDash completes acquisition of SevenRooms (DoorDash, June 13, 2025): DoorDash completes acquisition of SevenRooms June 13, 2025 (original: about.doordash.com · stored capture)
DoorDash agreement announcement (founders; strategic rationale; 13,000+ venues): DoorDash agreement announcement founders; 13,000+ venues (original: ir.doordash.com · stored capture)
DoorDash announces $1.2B SevenRooms deal (CNBC, May 6, 2025): DoorDash announces $1.2B SevenRooms deal CNBC, May 6, 2025 (original: cnbc.com · stored capture)
EY US announces Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 New York Award winners (EY newsroom, June 17, 2025): EY US announces Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 New York Award winners EY newsroom, June 17, 2025 (original: ey.com · stored capture) (link now dead; copy taken from the Internet Archive, 28 July 2026)
Joel Montaniel profile (Food On Demand): Joel Montaniel profile Food On Demand (original: foodondemand.com · stored capture)
SevenRooms debuts Contactless Order & Pay (SevenRooms press, May 6, 2020): SevenRooms debuts Contactless Order & Pay SevenRooms press, May 6, 2020 (original: sevenrooms.com · stored capture)
OnDeck letter to Congress (Mar 24, 2020): OnDeck letter to Congress Mar. 24, 2020 (original: ondeck.com) our copy of the letter
SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data, public_150k_plus_240930.csv and public_up_to_150k_*_240930.csv: SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data, public_150k_plus_240930.csv (original: data.sba.gov · stored capture) (link now dead; copy taken from the Internet Archive, 5 March 2025)
LinkedIn, Joel Montaniel profile (self-reported): LinkedIn, Jon Coss (original: linkedin.com)